2019 Advent Challenge

The auburn-haired woman ushered her three children close to the fireplace, smiling fondly when they immediately chose to sit on the floor instead of on the plush green armchairs. The twin girls, Cindy and Ashley, were only distinguishable by their knitted hats – Cindy's was green and Ashley's was yellow. Their younger brother, Peter, was just two years old, and always had a surprised expression on his face, as if he were seeing things other people weren't.

'It's Christmas Eve, isn't it, Mummy?' piped up Cindy.

Anita laughed. 'Of course it is, sweetheart. You've been counting down the days all month.'

'Are you going to tell us a Christmas story?' asked Ashley.

'I'm going to tell you a story that's very special to me,' said Anita, not quite answering the question. 'This is the story of how I met a very dear friend of mine.'

The children gazed up at her with wide, interested eyes.

'When I was thirteen years old, I went to boarding school,' she said. 'I loved it there; it was such a beautiful little place, and I had lots of friends. I enjoyed my studies, and I didn't think my life could be any better. But then... something very strange began to happen.

'Every night, or almost every night, I heard noises coming from parts of the school that should have been deserted. Rooms that were supposed to be locked, or hallways that nobody ever used.'

'Is this going to be a scary story?' Cindy asked.

Anita ignored her and carried on talking.

'One night, I finally decided that I'd had enough of hearing these strange noises and never knowing what was causing them, so I climbed out of bed and sneaked out of my dormitory. I crept through the school corridors in the dark, with nothing but a tiny, flickering lamp to light my way. I reached a staircase, and at the top of that staircase, I thought I could hear somebody... walking around. But it was the middle of the night, so nobody ought to have been there.'

Cindy and Ashley inched closer to the fire. Peter, on the other hand, kept gazing up at his mother with that same wide-eyed look of wonder he always wore.

'I decided that I'd be brave, so I walked up the stairs and searched for the source of the noise. And then I saw... him.'

She paused for dramatic effect.

'I saw William.'

'William?' Peter whispered.

Anita smiled at him. He was the only child who didn't look even the slightest bit frightened.

'He became my best friend,' she said. 'But I couldn't tell anyone else about him, not even my parents. You see, there was something very odd about William. Can you guess what was odd about him?'

'He was a monster!' Cindy squealed.

'He was a creepy old man with magic powers!' Ashley cried.

Anita stifled a laugh.

'Well, actually, you're both quite close,' she said. 'William wasn't a monster, but lots of people thought he was. And he certainly was very, very old... but he didn't look old. He looked like a boy only a little older than me.'

In the silence that ensued, Peter spoke up. 'Was he... a ghost?'

Anita turned to him, unable to hide her surprise. She had never talked about ghosts in front of her children before or even mentioned the word, so how had Peter made the jump to from 'a friend named William' to 'a ghost'?

'Yes, he was,' she said, speaking directly to Peter now. 'He was the ghost of a little boy who died many hundreds of years ago. An evil witch put a spell on him that forced him to live in my boarding school, until I befriended him and was able to break the curse.'

If her children had been a few years older, then she doubted they would have believed a single word she was saying. But as it was, even the twin girls who were three years older than Peter looked utterly spellbound, their curious faces illuminated by the soft glow from the fire.

'Did you stay friends with him?' Ashley asked.

'Yeah, where is he now?' Cindy asked. 'Did he leave you?'

'No, of course not. He was my greatest friend. But he's not always here.' Anita gave a smile that didn't quite hide her sadness. William had left the family home nearly two years ago to explore the world with his ghost friend, Spike. It was something he'd longed to do for ages, and Anita would never have refused him. But he had been gone for so long, and she missed him so much that it was like a physical ache in her chest, constantly reminding her of those happy school days when she and William had always been together.

That was probably why she had chosen to tell her children this story today – on the eve of their second Christmas without him.

'I want to meet him,' said Ashley decisively. It was ever so hard to say no to her when she used that tone.

'Well, maybe you'll meet him one day,' said Anita. 'We just have to be patient and wait for him to return.'

'What does he look like?'

Anita pretended to think, although really, she didn't need to. Every single detail of William's unchanging, unaging appearance was etched into her memory. 'Well, let's see. He had--'

'He has grey hair,' said a quiet voice.

Everyone – mother and both daughters – turned to stare at Peter in amazement.

'He has grey hair and... his eyes were... green and brown. One green, other brown.' Peter's gaze was unfocused. If Anita had been surprised a few minutes ago, it was nothing compared to how she felt now.

'Sweetheart... have you seen William?' she asked tentatively. Surely, a thing like that was ridiculous and too much to hope for? Peter had been only a few months old when William last left the household. Besides, Peter shouldn't even be able to see ghosts!

However, all the boy did was nod enthusiastically. 'I've seen him lots of times.'

'But how--?'

Anita's next words never made it past her lips. A flicker of movement stirred in her peripheral vision, a sight so familiar that she instantly whipped around to confront it, already knowing exactly what she would see.

In the corner of the room, sitting quite innocently on top of a cabinet, was a boy with grey hair and mismatched eyes and an expression so solemn that she would have been able to recognise him by that alone. No other boy she'd ever seen had looked so serious.

'Merry Christmas, Anita,' he said quietly, and the sound of his voice nearly made her break down in tears, because it hammered home that this was real. Absolutely and completely real. That voice was etched into her memory as well, so deep that it had become a part of her. No matter how long he went away for, she would never, ever forget the sound.

'You're back,' she whispered. He inclined his head towards her.

'I know I've been away for a long time. I'm very sorry about that. Spike and I got into some trouble in another country, and... well, perhaps that's a story for another time.'

'Mummy, who are you talking to?' said Cindy.

Anita had momentarily forgotten that all of her children were still there. She turned to see the twin girls staring uncomprehendingly at her, their eyes not even flickering towards the cabinet. Her heart sank a little; if they'd been able to see William, they would no doubt have reacted to his presence. Peter, on the other hand...

'You're Mummy's friend,' he said, watching the ghost jump down from the cabinet and brush invisible dust off his clothes.

'Yes,' he said. 'I've known your mother for a very long time.'

An older child might have had an endless stream of questions, but Peter simply said, 'Will you stay here for Christmas?'

William's expression of surprise suggested that no-one had ever asked him that question before, and Anita's heart immediately went out to him.

'...I'd love to,' he hastened to say. 'That is, if your parents and sisters don't mind.' His gaze strayed towards the twin girls, a flicker of sorrow passing over his face when he, like Anita, realised they couldn't see or hear him at all. And they never would.

'What's going on?' Cindy whimpered, tugging her sister's sleeve.

Anita decided it was probably best to explain things before they got even more confused, but how? She couldn't just say, 'Sweetheart, my ghost friend William has just appeared in the room. You can't see or hear him, but I promise he's there.'

While she struggled to come up with a suitable response, William floated over to join the family beside the fireplace. Out of nowhere, he had procured a piece of paper and an elegant-looking fountain pen. He said nothing, but simply sat down cross-legged on the hearth rug, bent over his paper, and began to write.

Anita looked on, mystified. A moment later, William carefully placed the freshly-written note on the rug in front of him. As soon as it left his hand, it became visible to the two girls, who let out squeals of excitement and lunged to grab it, nearly tearing the paper in their haste to read it.

'What does that say?' Anita asked.

William tilted his head. The fountain pen had disappeared as quickly as it had come. 'Just a little message to prove to them that I'm real,' he said. 'I thought it might make the task of explaining my existence easier on you. I might never be able to talk to them face-to-face, but I can communicate with them by writing messages. And I want to do that. It seems very impolite to stay in a family's home without all the family's approval.'

Anita blinked, wondering when her eyes had become so damp. 'So you'll really be staying for Christmas?'

'If you'd like me to,' he replied, sounding horribly vulnerable. It made her want to gather him up in a hug, and she decided she would do that as soon as they were alone together. Her children might know William existed, but they might still be unnerved by the sight of their mother embracing thin air.

'Peter can see you,' she said.

On cue, Peter stood up and toddled towards William, giving the much taller ghost boy an impromptu hug. Unlike Anita, he had no qualms about looking strange in front of his family. She saw a tiny flicker pass through William's body as he made himself tangible, and then – with an extremely uncertain expression – he embraced the younger boy in return.

'Merry Christmas,' Anita murmured. She wasn't sure who she was talking to, but for some reason, she decided that the words needed to be said. Christmas, she thought, had never felt more magical.

She was going to spend it with her beloved family and her best friend.